News of​ Abidali Neemuchwala's appointment came shortly after market hours on Monday, with Bangalorebased Wipro's shares closing marginally up at Rs 557.95 on the BSE.BENGALURU: In a widely expected move, Wipro’s billionaire chairman Azim Premji has put his faith in former TCS executive and current Wipro COO Abidali Neemuchwala, choosing to play it safe with an outsourcing industry veteran rather than adopt radical change at a time when the company faces challenges both within and without.

News of Neemuchwala’s appointment came shortly after market hours on Monday, with Bangalorebased Wipro’s shares closing marginally up at Rs 557.95 on the BSE.

With Neemuchwala’s elevation to the top job, Wipro in a way has opted not to go for a radically different change in its top echelons — unlike crosstown rival Infosys, which picked Vishal Sikka as its first non-founder CEO in 2014 — and chosen someone who over the years has cut his teeth in the heart of the traditional back-office outsourcing industry, experts tracking India’s $146-billion IT industry said.

“This is a good even if a safe move. We judge it good because Abid has impeccable credentials in the world of IT Services, cutting his professional teeth in TCS across roles and responsibilities. He is generally acknowledged for his operational & process rigor and integrated dealstructuring prowess,” said Viju George and Amit Sharma of JP Morgan India in a note on Monday.

Neemuchwala’s appointment is widely being seen in distinct contrast from Infosys, which made a bold bet in putting its faith in Sikka who at the time came with a reputation of being a technology visionary, but without much experience in traditional IT services.

Premji is betting that Neemuchwala will complete what current CEO TK Kurien could not manage to during his five-year tenure and successfully turn around Wipro’s fortunes.

“We dub the move “safe” as Abid is from the IT Services industry and may not exactly be perceived as a “digital” visionary boasting a different technology champion profile unlike say, Dr. Vishal Sikka at Infosys. More so, at a time where the boundaries between IT Services and software are continually blurring, possibly making “different” CEO selection choices more popular,” George and Sharma added.

The move to elevate Neemuchwala comes less than a year after he was appointed as COO, but was widely expected and does not come as a surprise.

Last year on March 16, prior to Neemuchwala’s COO appointment ET had first reported that Wipro would begin the process to identify and groom a successor to Kurien. EThad also reported on December 21 that Wipro had begun to set the stage for a CEO succession and was likely to name Neemuchwala as its new CEO, with Kurien moving to the role of vice chairman.

“Abid has a strong record of execution so he is well positioned to address the execution issue. However he will need significant investment dollars to drive the pivot to IP lead services for both acquisitions and the development of new business models which the IP services demand. The open question is will he be given the money and the time,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive of outsourcing advisory Everest Group.

Over the coming weeks, Neemuchwala is also expected to put his own stamp of authority on the current organization and unveil a brand new organisational structure, aimed primarily at resurrecting Wipro’s flagging fortunes and helping the company mount a serious challenge against larger peers such as TCS, Cognizant and Infosys.

“I’m driving what I call ‘Simplification’ within the organisation — just enables us to be more responsive to our customers, to our employees, to our business partners, everybody. The second and more widespread change I’m bringing about is around the delivery realignment, which enables us to do a lot of things. It enables us to transform our talent as the industry is changing to become more relevant to customers, going into the future. It enables us to do better mining by making the right investments in the customers. Our per customer revenue has been lagging, account mining has been a challenge — so that delivers towards that. The fourth change that I’ve brought about is creating an integrated services and solutions group with a team of experts,” Neemuchwala had said in an interview with ET in August last year.

Kurien, who completes five years as CEO later in January, will become executive vice chairman effective February 1, Wipro said. Neemuchwala who has also been appointed as a board member will take over his new role on the same day and continue to report to Kurien, the company said.

“In his nine months as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer, Abid has effortlessly assimilated into the culture and ethos of Wipro.

The new structure will ensure smooth succession and will build on the solid foundation we have developed to drive superior growth and profitability. I wish both TK and Abid every success in their new roles,” said Premji.